Fallback Crisis
by deltatau707
Summary: 34 years after the Homeworld War, the remnants of the empire threaten Hiigara again. Takes a more epic, harder science fiction direction. Very mature themes, similar to the first game in tone.


When the Kushan exiles returned to Hiigara, they expected to find a paradise, but instead found a wreck of a world, left in disorder by the riots and the evacuation. The abandoned Taiidan cities were of relatively little interest to the Hiigarans, except as temporary homes and sources of raw materials. The few remaining original Hiigaran cities, however, were the focus of intense study. Our 6000-year recorded history was rediscovered, and we learned the reasons behind our long exile.

The Hiigara system was filled with abandoned structures, and the largest was the Angel Moon Shipyard Complex, a 250-cubic-kilometer production facility embedded in the Hiigara-facing side of the Angel Moon. Historical records found in the shipyard indicate that it has been in continuous service for the last 5000 years, and has never been attacked by a significant force. It depends entirely on resources shipped in from elsewhere, having long ago depleted the moon's crust.

The Mothership was placed in a shipyard vault, and was radically reconfigured over the course of year 0. The engines and cryogenic vault were removed and the colonists were processed. The 563,794 sleepers were awakened to learn that they were the entire surviving Kushan civilian population. Most of them settled on Hiigara, and built the city of Assaam, where a new Council Dome was constructed. The new Diamid convened for the first time in 3AL.

The Diamid Full Council unanimously voted to retroactively approve of the actions taken during the Homeworld War, while our government was technically a military dictatorship. They created the new position of Sovereign, a leader of our race during times of great crisis, and declared that I was acting in that capacity during the journey.

Fleet command was dissolved, and we went our separate ways. The mothership command section was detached and moved to rest in a newly designated Museum Hall, where objects of importance to the Hiigaran people will be kept in a freefall environment with a habitable atmosphere. The Great Hyperspace Core was detached, and placed 1.2 kilometers from the command section, in the same relative position it had in the Mothership. Our place is here, and we do not need the Core in continuous service.

The resourcing and production section of the mothership was moved to low Hiigara orbit and renamed _The Scaffold_. It immediately began constructing hundreds of carriers and cruisers, building up a respectable fleet to defend the Hiigaran control zone. A fraction of its output was devoted to expanding and improving the scaffold itself, and it quickly became the equal of the structure that constructed the Mothership.

Meanwhile, the Great Shipyard began construction of new mothership-class vessels and platform components. The main limiting factor was resource access, and the growing civilian fleet was mainly used to bring raw materials to where they could be used.

I retired to a science vessel of my own design, the _Rokh_. I gave up the position of S'jet'Sa and named my cousin Arkei my fathers true successor before beginning a survey of the Great Derelict, where legend says the Core was discovered. There are still many questions to be answered, and my people no longer need me. I will raise my four children and any others who come along, and I urge all Hiigarans to do the same. We are too few, and must expand to fill the space the Galactic Council has given us.

Karan S'jet, Official Oral History of the Hiigaran People - 12AL - 9522GSY

* * *

At the University of New Assaam, in Galactic Standard Year 9546 and After Landfall 36, Karan S'jet started teaching HIS 121: History of the Fallback Crisis. It was the fourteenth history class offered at the University, and the first one taught by the enigmatic scientist. She already taught Advanced Applied Gravimetrics and Hyperspace Theory, but they were dry, technical lectures delivered by Fleet Command using integration with the _Rokh_. This would be different, a class taught by the Savior as a person in herself.

It was oversubscribed, viewed live by almost 63% of the population. Her narrative was to be added to the official oral history of their people, and already many viewed her as a mythical hero. She began with a short lecture on a particular aspect of the Taiidan evacuation before setting the stage for her story:

One of the greatest powers of far jump capability is that an entire form of long-range combat is rendered irrelevant by it, with all of the tactics, strategy, and investment involved wasted on the part of the defender.

During the Taiidan evacuation, the Primary Defense Battery space platform was destroyed, and the Galactic Council retroactively approved of the action, on the basis of a Taiidan civilian appeal that it implemented technologies and knowledge unique to the Taiidan. The supposed power of the cannon was unavailable during the battle of Hiigara, because it was on the far side of the Angel Moon, at the AM-2 libration point. No Kushan or Council craft ever imaged the platform, and the new Republic has refused to answer all questions. It was vapor before anything was learned about it.

If we had not possessed the Second Core, we would have had to approach at some multiple of lightspeed, and would have been vulnerable to battery fire while we paused to recharge between jumps. Instead we simply jumped directly to the Imperial Palace, and the Emperor refused to fire into the battle with any low- or mid-C artillery. He made many other mis-steps in the battle, but this was one of his largest, as the Taiidan are masters of this form of combat while we have almost no experience with it. We reverse-engineered many Taiidan relativistic cannons, but found nothing remarkable about them, except for completely scrambled computer systems.

In 34AL, I visited the scaffold for a celebration of the second milestone in the construction of the Paktu city-station, the _Daughter of the Moon_. The station will eventually be moved the AM-1 libration point, and the Paktu clan will move there en masse, enforcing a physical separation between them and the rest of our people, as there was on Kharak.

It was wonderful to see the main power system completed. The moment when the lights turned on in a wave spreading out from the center is one I'll always remember. Early the next morning, I woke up in my bed aboard the _Rokh_, with my husband beside me. My neural interface was connected by an optical fiber link, as I usually did before sleeping, and my implants had shocked me into full wakefulness with a sensation like an ice pick shoved between my eyes.

* * *

GALACTIC COUNCIL + GENERAL BROADCAST + WIDE DISTRIBUTION + ALL RACES

This is Karan S'jet, aboard the _Hiigara Scaffold_, taking Fleet Command for the Hiigara planetary system. Martial law is hereby declared in the Hiigaran Control Zone. Civilian traffic, new flight plans are being transmitted. General orders are to disperse and avoid contact before rallying at Sarum Station, where the 3rd Fleet will reestablish traffic control. Clan fleets, you are called to assist with all available vessels; report to the nearest Flagship. Hiigara local traffic, prepare for command line integration. We are forming a fleetmind. This is not a drill or exercise. Taiidani Imperialist forces have penetrated Low Hiigara Orbit with a multiple-division-level fleet deployment...

+0.12 seconds - Broadcast from Angel Moon Shipyard

Fleet Intelligence Online. General Situation Report: Eight civilian cargo haulers in close proximity to the Scaffold have deployed massive hyperspace gate arrays, and six Taiidan battle groups have jumped into low orbit, only 350 kilometers from the Scaffold.

Repeat, at least 673 enemy capital ships are inside the 1-light-minute final defense perimeter, and have matched velocities with the Scaffold. Hiigara core orbital infrastructure is under direct attack.

Couriers have been sent to the 7th and 1st fleets; they are expected to arrive in 24 and 49 minutes, respectively. Hiigara Local Defense assets will begin to arrive in 14 minutes but will not significantly affect the outcome of the engagement. Crash construction of hyperdrives to allow defense fleet monitors to short jump from the DMZ to Hiigara has begun, they will be mobile in approximately 3 hours.

+3.56 seconds: Fleet Command Status Report

The Diamid Council has begun a special session via cybernetics, and has authorized moderate collateral damage to the surface of Hiigara.

High-Orbit Defense Artillery Platforms 3,6,7,9, and 16 have clear line-of-sight, and are tracking to target super-capital ships with semi-guided A/M shrapnel shells. Angel Moon Surface has solid optical tracking with distributed visible-light telescopes, and we have imaged all 1,247 of the enemy capital ships that have arrived. Markings and formation indicate radical reorganization of fleet structure, and many ships show signs of improvised modifications. Two of the hyperspace gates are still open, while the other six have shut down, presumably to recharge.

Ballistic Accelerator Cannons will be aligned and charged to fire in 43 seconds. They will fire at exactly T+60, and adaptive targeting solutions have been generated. The enemy is still organizing and deploying strike craft after the hyperspace transit, we expect an 80+% kill rate with the coming volley.

They have underestimated our willingness to damage the homeworld in order to defend our future. The five impact sites will all be at least 10 kilometers from populated areas at the edge of Assaam, and ecological damage will be significant but not permanent.

+60 seconds: Fleetmind Thoughtstream

HODBAC volley is away, estimated velocity 0.02c, approximately 1.2 seconds to impact; impact with targets will precede surface impact by only ~50ms, shells are on target, active guidance has begun

Priority Zero Alert - Full-Sensorium Integration Emergency Triggered.

My subjective time perception is now dilated, 1000 to 1, through computation-assist acceleration provided by direct neural integration with the Scaffold distributed network.

What happened? The HODBAC volley. I'm not registering any hits consistent with viable A/M shrapnel detonation.

6 of the hyperspace gates, the ones that deactivated, have disappeared in flashes of intense radiation, consistent with uncontrolled antimatter reactions. 73 frigate-class vessels have exploded, consistent with extreme-delta-V collisions, but spread pattern indicates late detonation of the shells. We punched through them instead of hitting them with a cloud of shrapnel. That makes no sense, the firing solutions were perfect.

Infrared flash from the upper atmosphere, brighter and higher frequency than predicted. My new working theory using all of the sensor feeds available is that the shells somehow began accelerating downwards before detonating, at very high gee.

New theory: Antimatter-pumped gravity bombs, applying a huge acceleration for a tiny span of time. They could be used to deflect strikes away from cities as well. This will add a new layer to long-range warfare.

I cannot estimate the post-acceleration and -detonation velocity of the shell clouds without knowledge of the generator alignment.

I can only watch them fall over the next ten milliseconds or so, which will seem like about ten seconds for me if I disengage to dilated-but-not-accelerated time. I can experience it naturally as a perceptible life event if I want to.

I can guess what they've done, the S'jet quantum supercomputer array aboard the _Rokh_ has already come up with a generator alignment that would produce that effect, as well as a possible design for such a device. I've broadcast my notes; publish or perish, after all, and I am still a scientist.

I watched it like a person would, if it were a normal disaster instead of a relativistic nightmare. They managed to accelerate the shells up to 0.11c, and a patch of land centered on the Diamid complex has been blasted down to the mantle.

This is the true horror of interstellar war: There are _so many_ ways to do something like this to a planet.

The city of Assaam and the surrounding suburbs and rural communities were completely destroyed. A substantial cloud of rock and metal was kicked into the Hiigaran atmosphere, as well as low orbit. Our largest city on Hiigara is gone, but the rest of the colonists are safe for now, while low orbit has been redefined higher to avoid the debris field.

The runaway debris accumulation problem makes transit from the surface to orbit costly and dangerous. Additional maser batteries have been designed and are being deployed to Hiigara local civilian ships. Our homeworld has been seriously damaged in a way that will not resolve for 238 years.

The hyperspace gates which stayed open were gravimetrically locked to Hiigara; they did not accelerate when the bombs went off, nor did the capital ships around them. External racks were added to many vessels to hold strike craft in place through the maneuver. The gravitational lensing directed most of the antimatter blast downwards, and combined with improved shield generators on multiple super-capital ships, the Taiidan strike force remained in surprisingly good shape.

This was an extremely well-planned and flawlessly executed surgical strike which demonstrated radical new advances in several fields of applied and theoretical physics. They established a free-ride hyperspace path into LHO, home of our largest and most valuable orbital structures, and ships continued to pass through the hyperspace gates in the center of the strike force.

The civilian craft that snuck into Scaffold-local traffic were mothership-class vessels. Six of them were sacrificed, indicating a multiple-GNP investment in the attack. Many of the ships that arrived had completely unknown designs. This overall strategy is similar to the use of a Great Core Fleet, but it was executed using these impossibly large and long-range hyperspace gates.

It is clear that the Imperials have made an advance in hyperspace theory which has allowed them to develop a new form of improved short jump hyperdrive, which differs substantially from the one we have developed based on the Second Core.

Hiigara Government Feed, Wartime+60.89 seconds

With the Diamid destroyed and Hiigara under attack, I am once again the leader of my people, at the helm of the same core production array. Now it is attached to an entire Scaffold structure instead of a colony ship, but it is still _The Mothership_.

We are leaving. The Hyperspace Core must rendezvous with the Mothership as soon as possible. It is currently on public display in the museum hall of the Angel Moon Shipyard, aboard the artifact carrier _Omokan_.

+61 seconds: GENERAL BROADCAST + WIDE DISTRIBUTION + ALL RACES

The city of Assaam has been completely destroyed by a 'region-killer' orbital strike. Colonists on the other continents are not in danger, but will experience unpredictable and intense climate disruptions for the next few years. Total civilian casualties are estimated at 240,000.

Repeat, the Hiigaran Diamid has been nuked.

+63 seconds: Fleet Intelligence Assessment

The Taiidani hyperspace gates were also equipped with powerful gravity generators, which were tuned to destroy themselves in order to deflect incoming orbital bombardment fire to a target of their choosing. The shockwave is still expanding, but the entire Assaam urban zone has been destroyed. The Diamid is gone, and the Hiigaran civilian government has been decapitated, scenario 9.

The enemy has correctly predicted our response so far. We must consider the possibility that they have access to our contingency plans. Two hyperspace gates remain open in the center of the enemy formation, which is effectively undamaged.

+70 seconds: HIIGARAN GENERAL BROADCAST + COURIERS MUST DISTRIBUTE

This is Karan S'jet aboard the Hiigara Scaffold, Fleet Command for the Hiigara Planetary System. With the destruction of our new home city and the deaths of many clan leaders, we are executing fallback plan E6, with major modifications. All ships, repeat, all ships, stand by for orders.

I am now Hiigara Sovereign, commanding the Mothership, formerly known as Hiigara Scaffold. The artifact carrier Omokan, with the Great Hyperspace Core, is making an emergency launch from the Angel Moon Shipyard by gravity cannon, and will reach the mothership in approximately 30 minutes.

The Hiigara Catcher Array will be moved to the Mothership, and will redeploy in tight formation to catch the Omokan when it arrives. 6 Manaani carrier groups have been reassigned to move the Array, completion in 21 minutes.

The Mothership will jump in her current configuration. This will require 80 km^3 of hyperspace volume and more than a teraton of mass displacement. We estimate that we will be charged and ready in one hour.

+76 seconds: Fleet Intelligence Objectives Briefing

The Paktu City-Station _Daughter of the Moon_, currently under construction, must be removed from the Mothership primary bay before she can hyperspace. Unarmed civilian traffic in the Hiigaran planetary system is being merged into the fleetmind, and will be incorporated into the Mothership Fleet as tenders and tugs. The 93 heavy-lift cargo vessels in orbit around Hiigara will dump their cargos and dock with the Daughter to tow it out of the mothership, and will continue to act as improvised drive systems for mothership modules until further notice.

The Mothership is under attack and must be defended until reinforcements arrive. Armed civilian vessels, privateers, and clan fleets in the Hiigaran planetary system have been drafted and are now under our control. They will form up between the Mothership and the approaching enemy fleet, and will fight to the death to defend our government-in-exile.

The Hiigaran star system is no longer secure; we have been unable to locate the other end of the enemy hyperspace gates. Two of them are still active, and enemy ships continue to arrive. We are abandoning the Hiigara System and rallying for a counterattack staged from Sarum, with our civilian government relocated to Tanis.

Once the Hyperspace Core arrives and is integrated into the Mothership, she will jump to Tanis Station, on the outskirts of the Great Derelict. The S'jet city-state of Tanis will be the temporary home of the Hiigaran Nation, and the new Diamid will convene there. Once the Mothership has docked with Tanis Station and the Scaffold system has begun to reconfigure, the Omokan will separate and return to Hiigara. The partially-completed Daughter must be moved to Sarum Station, where the Naabal Scaffold will take over the station construction effort.

After those critical jumps are made, the Omokan will be the personal flagship of Karan S'jet, and therefore the flagship of Clan S'jet and the Hiigaran Fleet. She will determine priorities for use of the Core, with a focus on rapidly drawing support from other nations and moving military assets to rally points. Fueling the antimatter-driven rapid charging system will present challenges, but we will have ten loaded charges when we leave Tanis.

The existence of Tanis Station remains a top-level secret, to be concealed from all outsiders, and its precise location remains flag-level classified. As before, we intend to vanish; our temporary capitol will never be vulnerable in the way that Hiigara is.

+92 seconds: Sobani and Manaani rapid-response fleets report enemy contact, they have engaged the outer edges of the forward battle group, and will continue to harass the enemy and provide sensor and comm relays.

+149 seconds: GENERAL BROADCAST + WIDE DISTRIBUTION + ALL RACES +

This is Fleet Intelligence, broadcasting from the Angel Moon Shipyard for the Hiigaran Nation. The clans are united once more. The destruction of the Diamid Council places the Hiigaran Navy in control until a new council is formed, and the Sovereign will remain in place until the council votes to remove her.

The Mothership is fleeing a massive enemy fleet which has jumped into low Hiigara orbit and swept our responding artillery fire into our own capital city. Sensor feeds are attached. The Diamid made the decision to fire the HODBAC batteries, and they did not live to regret that decision. 17% of the Hiigaran population has perished, taking critical surface infrastructure with them. Hiigara must be temporarily evacuated, and civilian transports will be pressed into service moving the survivors to refugee camps in the Great Wastelands.

We are once again nomads, and our situation is dire. All Hiigarans must answer the call and report to the nearest flagship. Admiral Malik Soban of the First Fleet is now the commander-in-chief of the Hiigaran Navy, and will arrive in Hiigara space in approximately 45 minutes. Karan S'jet is now the Sovereign, and will contact the Bentusi and the Galactic Council when able. Clan Naabal is hereby authorized to take direct control of all aspects of the Hiigaran economy, in preparation for a shift to a total war footing.

Hiigaran foreign policy now conforms to model 7C; until further notice we are isolationists, and trust no foreign civilian vessels. The five light-year Hiigaran control zone is now being strictly enforced, as well as 0.1LY control zones around Sarum and Nawonan. The current emergency has triggered our military alliance with the Taiidan Republic. We expect a courier reply with their deployment plans within the day. Allied fleets will rally in the Hiigaran DMZ to organize and plan a counterstrike directed at enemy infrastructure.

We believe the enemy objective is to capture the Mothership; this cannot be allowed. All Hiigaran vessels, clear for action！

* * *

+19 minutes: Fleet Command LocalNet Broadcast

Civilian vessels are beginning to arrive in appreciable numbers at the Mothership, and many are being retired to provide resources for repairs and the construction of a strike wing. Others are being evacuated and pressed into service as chaff and decoys. The Daughter of the Moon has been taken in tow and has begun disengaging from the Scaffold structure; it will be clear of the Mothership in 27 minutes. The Omokan has been thrown by the Angel Moon Accelerator, and will reach the Mothership in 11 minutes. The Mitt is deployed, charged, and ready. The Taiidan have not disputed the capture, presumably because they do not wish to risk the Core's safety. They must not be aware that the Core defends itself gravitationally. This is to our advantage; we can presume they will not fire to damage a vessel carrying the Core.

The far end of the enemy hyperspace gates now conclusively does not exist within 23 light-years. This suggests Far Jumper-Derived Technology. The Third Core may have been found.

INTEL interjects:

This could also be a result of their demonstrated advances in gravitational manipulation. The effects of gravitational fields on hyperwave links as used in gates are not fully understood. The Taiidan may have made a pure science breakthrough in applied hyperspace theory, possibly by recovering a relic with such a system. There is no reason to conclude 'Third Core' at this time. Don't start a panic, Karan. This is an unconventional war, not the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.

CMD responds:

Regardless, the capture of a mothership-class hyperspace gate is a primary objective. We must analyze their emitter arrays and determine the true range of their technique.

Sensor obfuscation has begun; we are confidant the enemy cannot accurately assess our fleet movements.

Distance to the edge of the Taiidan strike group is now 98 kilometers; hard contact estimated in 23 minutes, after the 7th Fleet has arrived. Strike wing construction is 24% complete, and interceptors have engaged close-range recon elements of the Taiidani strike group.

Enemy vessels continue to arrive through the two open gates; there are now 2,345 enemy capital ships in LHO. An artillery strike is being planned to hit only the gateships, using 2 projectiles accelerated to 0.08c to eliminate the possibility of deflection. Modifications to BAC systems on HOD artillery platform 9 will be complete in 17 minutes, and it will be ready to fire 93 seconds later.

The platform will be heavily damaged by the discharge; this is intentional. Orbital assets in the Hiigaran planetary system must be defended until the Omokan is available to move them to more favourable positions. If the capture of a platform seems likely, local forces are to evacuate and destroy it.

+29 minutes: Mothership Local Traffic Control, subjective-accelerated 10000:1

The Omokan is approaching along expected path, adaptive corrections are running, stand by for the catch.

Successful step-down, successful correction, successful funnel, successful capture.

Catch was perfect, docking in 10 seconds.

+30 minutes: HIIGARAN GENERAL BROADCAST + COURIERS MUST DISTRIBUTE

Mothership status report; all systems online. I have integrated with the Core Control System; the Mothership is away. All available power has been shunted to the Core.

Hyperspace module charging; 2% capacity and rising; the Mothership will be charged for jump in 28.4 minutes. The Mothership is under attack! Fleet 7 has joined the battle, Admiral Kharai is FLT7CMD. Admiral Soban and the First Fleet will arrive in 19 minutes, the LZ is clear. Enemy Super-Capitals are accelerating to engage FLT7, they cannot hold the line, breakthrough expected in 16 minutes.

Reinforcements are urgently needed in low Hiigara orbit, all Hiigaran vessels in jump range, assist us.

GENERAL HIIGARAN DISTRESS at Hiigara system. The Mothership is under attack, and needs immediate assistance.

* * *

Priority One Alert, Unexpected Hyperspace Exit. Admiral Soban has arrived with 72% of FLT1, via piggyback-relay. The remainder of the fleet is disabled and will not arrive in time to influence the outcome. FLT1 is in the expected LZ, and is vectoring to assist FLT7. We now expect short-term victory. The Mothership and the Daughter of the Moon will escape.

+37 minutes: Mothership LocalNet broadcast

The enemy hyperspace gates have been destroyed. Enemy forces are now trapped inside the light-day hyperspace inhibitor perimeter, but can jump freely inside the Hiigara system.

The enemy strength is overwhelming, we must retreat and leave them in control of the homeworld for now.

+46 minutes: Mothership LocalNet broadcast:

The Daughter has cleared the Mothership, and is drifting away at 1.2 meters per second. Tugs have undocked and are returning. The battle continues, but the fleet is holding and we anticipate victory in our limited objectives.

+59 minutes: Mothership Hyperspace Control

Hyperspace Module fully charged, set for Tanis Station, Far Jump Engaged. We have left the Homeworld and are en route, 49 seconds to hyperspace exit.

We have arrived at Tanis, 5 kilometers from the city. I am unplugging to transfer to the Omokan, where the remainder of the S'jet'Sa families will gather, along with ambassadors, science teams, and intelligence analysts.

* * *

Mothership Reconfiguration has initiated, the scaffold structure is adjusting to new requirements, and will be fixed along one edge of the city as an attached Shipyard.

The mothership production section, the Omokan, and several other fragments have detached and are moving clear of the developing platform. The rapid charging system must be added before the Omokan leaves.

The production section will be moved into the shipyard, and will form the core of a new mothership-class super-carrier compatible with the revised Omokan design.

* * *

Fleet Command has returned. The Core is charging for immediate return to Hiigara, 19 seconds to full charge. The rapid charging system has been installed. Containment is green. Core is fully charged, far jump engaged.

We have arrived in Hiigara low orbit, 160 meters from the Daughter of the Moon. Our Jump Control System is in perfect alignment. Docking procedures initiated, the rapid charge system is firing.

Taiidan artillery is tracking to target me; estimate 16 seconds to impact; we have the platform; enemy artillery volleys away; rapid charge system has fired; hyperspace module charging; 62% capacity and rising; rapid charge system is firing again.

Hyperspace module fully charged, course set for Sarum Station, far jump engaged.

We have left Hiigara again, and are in transit to Sarum. 14 seconds to hyperspace exit.

We have arrived in Sarum. The Naabal Scaffold is moving to surround the Daughter, 3 hours to completion. The Omokan has separated from the platform, and is drifting.

We have depleted 20% of our antimatter supply. The Rapid Charge System has performed admirably. Hyperspace module charging; 22% capacity and rising. We will return to Tanis to rest and resupply before rallying the fleet.

Hyperspace module fully charged, course set for Tanis, far jump engaged.

We have arrived at Tanis again. I have executed 3 hyperspace jumps in less than 5 minutes. The Revised Omokan Far Jump Carrier has passed all tests with flying colors. We will dock with the Mothership for repairs, refit, and resupply.

Current primary objective is the rallying of distant fleet assets. The Eighth Fleet is ready for action, 214LY away. We will collect them at Sarum.


End file.
